Beyer switches to vote for Government on foreshore

By AUDREY YOUNG, political editor

Labour MP Georgina Beyer will vote for the Government's foreshore and seabed legislation after changing her mind again.

"They've got my vote but they don't have my heart and conscience," she said yesterday. She would not be able to advocate for the bill.

She is one of the few Maori MPs in a general seat, but is retiring next election.

She said Prime Minister Helen Clark had spoken to her twice over the weekend but the reaction of her Wairarapa constituents had forced her rethink.

"They've all been saying I've got to put my personal feelings aside and the fact that I'm a Maori aside."

She cited the Herald editorial of last Thursday headed "Beyer has no right to abstain on foreshore legislation," which argued she had to represent the views of her electorate rather than her personal views.

"It was absolutely right and that has been the dilemma."

She originally told the Labour caucus and her Wairarapa electorate organisation she would support the bill. Then at the last Labour caucus on April 6 she announced she wanted to abstain. Yesterday she said she had decided to vote for it.

Two Labour Maori electorate MPs are expected to oppose the bill. They are Te Tai Hauauru MP Tariana Turia and Tainui MP Nanaia Mahuta - but it was not known whether their hints at resignations from Parliament were genuine.

The pair's opposition was enough to force the minority Government to find support for the bill beyond its most reliable ally, United Future.

Georgina Beyer was being blamed because colleagues were upset at her sudden change.

New Zealand First was the alternative support party. However, it put conditions on its support that conflicted with United Future's conditions, and the Government was forced to choose the larger New Zealand First, with enough numbers to secure a majority, over United Future.

Georgina Beyer said yesterday that Mrs Turia and Nanaia Mahuta had a mandate to oppose the bill because they were Maori electorate MPs. "If there has ever been an argument to retain Maori seats for a specific Maori voice in Parliament, then this has got to be one example of that.

"All this talk of Maori being able to stand in general seats is all very well but what happens when you are caught between a rock and a hard place?"

In the end she had done what she believed was "politically correct".

"But it doesn't alter the fact that my conscience and me are not comfortable with this."

The legislation was introduced to Parliament just before Easter.

The Foreshore and Seabed Bill prevents the Maori Land Court from being able to award private title and allows it to recognise customary use rights and ancestral connection of groups of Maori - both of which will give the relevant group greater decision-making rights over particular areas.

The bill vests ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown.

It also extinguishes the right of Maori to successfully claim customary title or aboriginal title under the High Court common law jurisdiction. It effectively renames the terms "territorial customary rights" and says the court may hear such cases but refer them to the Government for redress if it finds that the claimants would have been successful were it not for the legislation preventing it doing so.

The legislation

* The legislation was introduced to Parliament just before Easter.

* Debate and the first reading vote on the Foreshore and Seabed Bill will occur in the first week of May when Parliament resumes sitting.

* The legislation is the Government's response to a Court of Appeal judgment recognising the possibility that the Maori Land Court could award private title over the foreshore and seabed.